At Obdaga Public Primary School, the school
garden is the pride of the students. Cabbages, onions, tomatoes and okra have
grown well and are used daily to enrich the school canteen. Set up by Aide et
Action as part of the Support Project for Schooling and Health Development, the
school garden – now entirely managed by the community – has a dual function:
nutritional and educational.

The Support Project
for Schooling and Health Development developed in the village of Obdaga in the
rural commune of Manni, Burkina Faso, was officially closed a few months ago
but its impact is still remarkable and its sustainability seems assured.
Indeed, the community is committed to managing the school garden so that its
nutritional and educational benefits can last.

Community mobilization and engagement

Implemented by Aide et
Action, with financial support from the Orange and BEL Foundations, the project
aimed to improve access to quality education, drinking water and health
services. This enabled the construction of two boreholes, a Health and Social
Promotion Center, two latrines and the repair of the school kitchen. The
establishment of a school garden complemented these actions in order to help
improve the nutritional conditions of students but also to respond to
educational challenges.

Once the project was
completed, in October 2020, community actors (members of the Parents’
Association, the Association of Mother Educators and the Management Committee),
teachers and students made the commitment to perpetuate the school garden. For
the current school year (2020-2021), gardening activities could therefore be
continued without interruption. And today it’s a great satisfaction: the
cabbages, onions, tomatoes and okra have grown well and are partly ready for
consumption. “We started the garden
activities in our school field in December 2020. We had to finish harvesting
beans, millet and sesame first,” said the director of the Obdaga
public primary school, M Alhagi DIANDA.

A tool for teachers, a satisfaction for
children

The harvest from the
field is used for the school canteen. “The
training of community actors on their role and responsibilities by Aide et
Action has contributed to the awareness of the parents of pupils concerning
their implication for the accompaniment of the teachers in the management of
the school“, adds the director of the school. For the management of
the school garden, a planning has been set up. Elementary students water the
plants during the hours of their practical activities class of the school
curriculum. On rest days, especially Sundays and during holidays, members of
the Association of Mothers Educators take over. As for the Management Committee
(COGES), it bought the seeds which are made available to the students gathered
in school government. The training and implementation of it were also supported
by Aide et Action, still within the framework of the project.

For the principal of
the Obdaga school, the sustainability of the school garden is important for two
reasons. “On the one hand, it
enriches the canteen meal with vegetables and on the other hand, it plays an
educational role by serving as a practical case for the course on agriculture.
It is easier for the teacher to convey the lesson from plowing to harvesting.
Parents are happy to see that we are showing their children how to take care of
a plan”, insists the director. The pupils themselves enjoy the garden. The
watering time for each class is a time for students to relax and for the most
part to learn the trade from their parents.